Kick off the New Year with health and safety in mind.

The end of the year is often known as a time for reflection, planning and a commitment to healthier choices. However, this doesn’t necessarily have to mean eating healthier and going to the gym; applying positive changes in the workplace is just as important. Particularly for health and safety professionals, the New Year is a perfect opportunity to consider the successes and failures of your current EHS strategy within the last year. This assessment is a great starting point for shifting towards a fully-integrated risk management strategy in your workplace.

With that in mind, here are some ideas to get you started and excel in your health and safety performance in 2023.

1. Take time to reflect

The assessment of the past year is a great starting point for enhancing your safety management in the workplace. Outlining successes, as well as mistakes, can help you curate specific and informed safety solutions. Consider the following questions:

Did you document any workplace health and safety hazards? Hazards are often observed and no solution is made. Think back on the past year and note any significant hazards and/or incidents that occurred.
Could any accidents have been prevented? The consideration of how an incident could have been prevented is vital for planning and future prevention.
Did staff correctly follow the health and safety procedures? Assess how staff reacted to any incidents and compare this in line with established procedures. If procedures were not followed correctly, a refresh in training may be a consideration for the New Year.
What are workers saying they need to feel safer in the workplace? Gain insight from employees who are directly involved with daily hazardous activities.
How effective is your workplace health and safety training? How often are employees trained? Is it comprehensive enough?
How did you support your employees’ mental wellbeing? This aspect of health and safety is often overlooked. However, the consideration of your workplace’s mental wellbeing resources is just as important.

Considering questions such as these is vital to reflect and improve your EHS strategy. Make a note of any potential solutions, get insight from staff and managers and start to put measures in place to promote a safer work environment in 2023.

2. Revisit your training strategy

Effective health and safety training is essential to ensure that employees are fully equipped with the knowledge they need to perform their roles safely, without putting themselves or others at risk. What’s more, if productivity is high on your list for your New Year’s goals, you may also consider revisiting your health and safety training strategy. According to a recent study in Occupational Health Science, “employees’ safety and health are of primary importance, as both are key elements in achieving an organization’s desired productivity and efficiency.” Leveraging communication devices such as smartphones, tablets and online platforms has become common practice in the health and safety industry. Not only can workers utilise devices they are already comfortable with, but such devices and online platforms can also offer improvements to productivity. Online health and safety training and induction platforms can be utilised in almost any industry. With that said, many industries are investing in bespoke online health and safety platforms that can be specifically curated to keep your workforce safe. Click here to let our expert team know how we can help you curate a bespoke online health and safety platform to accelerate your New Year’s health and safety goals.

4. Risk assess your environment

Risk assessments are a mandatory requirement in any organisation. They involve ‘a systematic process that involves identifying, analysing and controlling hazards and risks.’ The thorough assessment of already-established processes and potential risks is a great way to identify hazards in the workplace and find solutions to minimise and/or reduce risk. That said, the end of the year is a perfect time to review risk assessments, and ensure everything is up-to-date and corrected completely to increase workforce health and safety and compliance with health and safety law. Although risk assessments can cover many areas, start by assessing the basic principles:

What can harm people in your workplace?
Who may be harmed and how?
What measures need to be put into place?
How are risk assessments recorded?
How often are risk assessments updated?

If improving your RAMS procedures is a goal for you going into 2023, you may consider using online platforms. Utilising bespoke online systems allows you to carry out multiple tasks all in one, cohesive and intuitive system. Resolution Digital can create bespoke Risk Assessment and Method Statement software to work the way that you need. Get in touch to see how our expert team can help you enhance your risk assessment processes.

5. Assess communication from day one

Communication is vital in all aspects of life. However, when it comes to people’s health and safety, it is more important than ever. Incidents often stem from a lack of communication: from the health and safety induction to day-to-day on the job; communication should be a top priority. Here are a few questions to get you started with assessing your communication strategy:

Are employees satisfied with your health and safety induction process?
How consistent is your health and safety induction?
How long is your health and safety induction?
How comprehensive is your health and safety induction?
Does your health and safety induction process utilise different learning methods?
Do you have tools in place to communicate with employees?
How are important messages dispersed?
How do you record that employees have understood important messages?

Assessing your current communication methods will help you shift towards enhancing communication in the workplace, keeping employees well-informed and most importantly, safe. If you want to improve communication in the workplace, you may consider investing in a bespoke online health and safety system. In a world where almost every person is familiar with technology, having an online platform where you can monitor inductions, send out training, important notices and toolbox talks, communicate with lone workers and much more is more important than ever. If enhancing communication is a goal for you going forward, consider investing in a bespoke online health and safety platform. Resolution Digital’s team are more than happy to have a chat and make suggestions to enhance your health and safety goals using bespoke software. Get in touch today or click to download the checklist!